Audio 3:51
Changes to Qld surrogacy laws causing concern

Tom NightingaleUpdated
Mon 7 Jan 2013, 2:03 PM AEDT

Concerns are growing about the Queensland Government's proposed changes to surrogacy laws. The LNP government plans to repeal provisions that allow same sex couples and singles to become surrogate parents. The Family Council of Queensland supports the move - saying it will ensure all children have a mother and a father. However lawyers are attacking the changes as blatantly discriminatory. Many gay parents are now wondering about their future in the state.

Transcript

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: In Queensland, conflict is growing over the State Government's proposed changes to surrogacy laws. The LNP Government plans to repeal provisions that allow same-sex couples and singles to become surrogate parents.

This is despite Premier Campbell Newman promising before the election that he wouldn't make any changes to the law.

From Brisbane, Nance Haxton reports.

(Child laughing)

NANCE HAXTON: The first sound you hear when approaching the house of Jared Merrell and Michael Knowles is the giggling of their 15-month-old twins Huxley and Elijah.

But it's been a long road to get to where they are today. The two men first decided they wanted to have a family four years ago. Through friends of friends in their hometown of Brisbane, they found a surrogate mother who lives close by their house in the northern suburbs.

Michael Knowles says the relationship was meant to be, and Rachel, along with her extended family, are very involved in their children's lives.

MICHAEL KNOWLES: She comes over for dinners and play dates and we think that that's crucial for boys' development. You know, the questions are going to come up when they're older. I think it's easier to lay it all out from the beginning, then there's no awkwardness, the boys know what's going on, how they were created and that's just one less thing they have to worry about.

NANCE HAXTON: The Queensland Government plans to change that by effectively banning single people and gay couples in the state from having surrogate children.

Over several months the ABC has made multiple requests to Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie, to explain why the LNP is making the changes to the Surrogacy Act, but he has steadfastly refused to talk.

The powerful lobby group The Family Council of Queensland supports the proposed changes. Group spokesman and Toowoomba based GP Dr David van Gend.

DAVID VAN GEND: Because it will reaffirm the principle which must guide any such matters that a child should have at least the possibility in life of both a mother and father. And the Queensland laws are so bogus that they will then falsify the birth certificate of that baby to say there was only one parent, that there was no mother. That is the legal fiction that is contained in this current law that, you know, must be changed.

STEPHEN PAGE: If anything, these children are going to be cherished, they're going to be loved, and the people that I've seen who've had children through surrogacy, they love their kids to bits. And it makes no difference about whether they're a couple or they're single, it makes no difference about their sexuality. They just love these kids.

NANCE HAXTON: Scott Prasser is the Professor of Public Policy at the Australian Catholic University. He says the delay in implementing the changes reflects conflict within the Liberal and conservative arms of the LNP.

SCOTT PRASSER: So I think Campbell Newman has a different view on this personally himself but I think he is in a sort of an amalgamated party, it's a Liberal and National Party combination and there's a very, very strong conservative element, philosophically, in that party, especially on social issues.

And I think that he - this is a battle that he would not win.

NANCE HAXTON: Jared Merrell and Michael Knowles hope that they can appeal to legislators and the public alike, that they are a legitimate family.

JARED MERRELL: There's no formula for it, the only thing that works is love - our boys are loved, our boys are cared for, our boys were planned.

MICHAEL KNOWLES: They want for nothing. We are incredibly fortunate to have them, and I just, I want other people who want to start a family to have that opportunity; I don't want that right taken away from them.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Michael Knowles ending Nance Haxton's report. A longer documentary on the changes to Queensland's surrogacy laws will run tonight on PM.